No shortage of St Mary’s banana chips

JP Tropical Foods has declared that it is not experiencing a shortage of bananas for the production of its popular St Mary's banana chips.

Following reports that several Jamaican banana chips suppliers were unable to meet demand because of what they say is a shortage of the fruit, JP Foods, earlier this week, moved to assure its customers that they can depend on a normal supply.

"We operate our own banana farm in Jamaica, and to the extent that it does not provide enough fruit to meet the total demand of our brand, we can supplement our supplies through our second factory based in the Dominican Republic," said David Martin, chief executive officer of JP Tropical Foods.

"Both factories use the Cavendish varieties of bananas, which have proven to be very popular with our clients in the eight countries we supply," added Martin, in obvious reference to the FHIA strain of bananas being introduced to Jamaican farmers.

"We wish to again emphasise and reiterate that we only use the Cavendish varieties of bananas for our St Mary's banana chips."

Some local banana chips manufacturers have argued that the FHIA strain of bananas does not make good chips and that Jamaicans will label the product as "plastic bananas".

This has been rejected by the Banana Board, which said if prepared properly, this FHIA variety will taste the same as all other banana chips.